Case Study: Baystate Health achieves dramatic gains in employee recognition and retention with Workhuman

Humanizing the Patient and Employee Experience

Baystate Health, a not‑for‑profit integrated health system in Springfield, Mass., with 12,000 team members, sought to make its new core values (quality, compassion, teamwork, service, innovation) real for staff after finding recognition was a low-scoring engagement area. Their old informal, cash‑based program had been phased out during budget cuts, and employees wanted more social, multi‑directional recognition that celebrated steady, everyday contributions.

Baystate partnered with Workhuman to launch Baystate Celebrates!, a peer‑to‑peer Social Recognition program featuring a public newsfeed, Service Milestones, and a mobile app championed by leadership. The program generated 32,000 recognition moments in one year, lifted recognition scores to the 99th percentile regionally (78th nationally), and correlated with much lower turnover—nurses with three or more awards had seven times lower turnover and the 40 physicians with three-plus awards had zero turnover—while analytics help reinforce values and integrate the system.

Baystate Health

Jennifer Faulkner

Vice President, Team Member Engagement & Communications